A One-Person Horse.

I keep telling myself I'm going to update more often.

Sadly, I think the bulk of the fact that I fail to post on my blog is simply that nothing really interesting ever goes on!

At Amber's last farrier appointment, her farrier and I were talking about trail rides and we might be accompanying him on a mountain ride in the future. I've never ridden in the mountains on anything besides the nose-to-tail packers, so it would be an fun experience. And it would be awesome to have somebody to ride with. Trail riding is a lot better with friends - it's even better with real, legit trails. Which we do not possess at the barn.

So that might make for some interesting blogs, although I don't think we will be able to go every weekend.

I might have some legit trails to ride on in the near-ish future, but the reason I'm not going to post publicly, as I'm sworn to secrecy. It is a very exciting change though.

I was considering half-leasing Amber to a nice older woman who wants to lease a horse to walk-trot in the round-pen once a week, and brush and fuss over.

I was reminded of why I should approach this endeavor with caution yesterday.

I had a really great ride on Amber, she was so relaxed and responsive. Victoria decided to try her hand at riding Amber again...it has not gone well in the past. And not just for Victoria...Amber gets very tense with any new rider and "takes off" in some cases. By taking off, I mean she sticks her nose up and simply avoids the bit and tries to canter away - she doesn't actually get really out of control.

I wasn't sure how things were going to end up really. She was so chill and quiet with me I thought Victoria would have it easy...Amber kept cantering off with her. Tense, rushing and choppy. They eventually worked it out. Amber was still on edge, but she was semi-relaxed. They even got a nice canter! I was impressed.

But it made me wonder how beginner-safe she is anymore. She was pretty lazy when I first met her. Now she likes to go, go, go. And if she starts to worry if her rider is going to hurt her, she goes even faster. It's her way of avoidance and self-defense. I honestly don't believe she would ever do any crazy aerobatics and dump someone, but I know someone like the woman I was thinking of leasing her to, it would shatter her confidence if Amber started cantering off with her, or if she started to trot fast and tense and the brakes weren't working so well.

But it makes me realize just how close she is to me, and how much she trusts me. I have to say, it's very gratifying to know my horse behaves markedly better for me than others. The only person who can get her close to the relaxation I can get her to is Casey. But Casey knows what works for Amber, like me, because she was the one who helped us get there! The best approach is always to keep calm, and above all don't try to adjust everything and nit-pick. Don't ask for too much until she relaxes. It usually takes her a minute once we start trotting and then she's fine. My aids literally have to be whispered to her. And minimal aids are effective because she knows how to go nicely and she only feels comfortable to go like that if the rider is basically sitting there posing.

She wants you in a nearly perfect position. She doesn't even want you on the wrong diagonal - I can't remember if I posted it here before, but she has actually learned to switch my diagonal for me, or at least let me know I'm wrong.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE. I'm getting some serious goodies for Christmas for my sweet girl.

Four, yes, FOUR new saddle pads.

A navy blue Baker baby pad with the baker plaid for trimming. It's going to look stunning on her.

Remember the navy blue fleur de lis pad I had that I spilled bleach on? I gave it to Victoria, but I miss that pad, so I'm getting it in hunter green, since with the addition of the baker pad, I will have 2 navy pads already.

A cheapy cotton pad in lavender. I'm getting this because it will match my tendon boots perfectly.

And finally, a pretty Centaur pad in sage. I've been wanting an "earth tone" saddle pad for a while.

I'm getting ear nets to match all of these, except the Baker pad, because I already have a navy ear net. I'm getting a black one to match my custom baby pad. I'm getting a lavender bonnet that will go with all my purple stuff. I thought about getting a white one to go with my white pad with the purple piping, but it will get dirty so fast I decided lavender will be fine.

I'm also getting a couple of new pairs of breeches, and a new halter and lead in a turquoise color. I'm a little ashamed of myself - I'm totally breaching my purple color scheme! But there's only so many "outfits" you can make with purple, and I'm fairly obsessed with ear net-saddle pad "outfits" lately. I would be getting matching polos for everything, but as of late, I'm way to lazy to polo wrap, and it isn't really necessary with our little 30-45 minute light hacks.

I promise to update more often. I'm sure I'll be itching to post pictures of our new "outfits", anyway.

Team Red Mule

I hate that I'm not as much of an avid poster as I used to be. Full time work, school and several animals just kind of kill extracurricular activities!

I did want to share this gem with you guys. By now I'm sure most of you who follow here know that the inside barn joke is that everything is a cow/mule/nag. Most of the regularly ridden horses have some affectionate name with cow, mule or nag ending it. Amber is, of course, Red Mule.

Which is why my new hoodie is the best thing since sliced bread!

Amber has been doing very well since my last post. Much to my dismay, right when things started getting good after my "epiphany" she when into raging heat. Pretty sure she had some tightness, maybe even soreness, in her hind end from that. She was borderline lame she was so stiff, and let me tell you about grouchy!

I gave her like, 4-5 days off just because I felt like she was starting to get stressed and I didn't want to push her if that was the case. First day I planned on riding, there was a farm show in the field across the road. A ton of mules, drafts, carts and buggies, plows, ect were moving about. All the horses on the property were about to flip. One girl was bathing her OTTB, and he sat back and broke his halter, and proceeded to run around the thankfully enclosed area bucking, power trotting and galloping for about 5 minutes.

That was probably should have been a red flag that it wouldn't be a good day for riding, but I was determined not to change my plans to avoid potential misbehavior from my horse.

I had planned on lunging her anyway, as I like to incorporate lunging now to strength her muscles and help get her bending. I thought it would be a good way to bring her back into work after her mini-vacation. It started off nice enough. She was a little "looky", but she walked on the lunge nicely for me, and started to trot nicely also. But when I asked her to canter - she shot off like a rocket and let out a couple of bucks. I was amused, but I got after her for it. We've worked very hard on lunge manners, and she's come too far since her days of rearing and snatching back from the spring/summer of 2011 to let things slide!

She never really slowed her canter but we did manage to get it under control, even if it was a little speedy. Once she seemed to be listening better, I got on and started working her on something like a 20-25m circle. Getting her bending and listening. She was really looking across the road but she wasn't interesting in acting up anymore.

After I had her attention we went full arena, and she was great. She definitely looked at the commotion across the road, but she remained very focused. And our canter under saddle was absolutely brilliant!

Things have been looking up ever since then. I feel like she gets bored with the flatwork, but I don't think Casey feels we are ready to jump again. And I'm not sure we are either. I don't want to push things. She's been really sound and actually improving on the flat, and I don't want to put more upon her than she can handle and start backtracking on the progress we've made by making her lame again.

We did break rules a bit and go for a light gallop the other day. She did buck twice at first when some birds flew out of a bush, but I've learned her ways from previous similar stunts, and really giving her a little push forward is all that's needed to get her mind back on track. I'm not so sure it wasn't more of an "I feel good!" buck rather than the birds that flew out of the bush.

When we returned home she was super relaxed though. Her whole body was just loose and relaxed, it was awesome. It might be beneficial for her, physically and mentally from time to time!

Saturday it was back to work in the arena and we got some cute pictures taken by Jessie! It was a good workout. She spooked at the neighboring dog playing with a bucket, which was great, and I mean that sincerely, because she never does ANYTHING in the way of spooking, ect...something interesting to happen now and then is appreciated.

But anyway, here are the pictures from my latest ride. Maybe I'll try to actually post and keep up with my blog! I should rename it Team Red Mule...

The Epiphany.

I can't even remember where I last left off at. I think it was post-shoeing.

I don't know what's been going on with me. I've been constantly tired and depressed as of late. For the past 2 months+ I have been disgustingly unable to get anything done. My lack of productivity contributed greatly to my depressive state.

I have a lot to update on so I'll start with the big thing:

I had hind shoes put on Amber in August. She did well but in September, a couple of weeks before she was due, several things happened. With the growth she had towards the end of the cycle, we noticed that the farrier had made one hoof noticeably shorter than the other. She either stepped wrong when I was riding, or did something in the pasture - who knows - but her right front ballooned and she was noticeably lame for a couple of weeks. She also threw both shoes within a week of each other.

Because of the unevenness of the trim (probably contributing to the strain and stress on the legs), I went to the other barn farrier that I have avoided. I also had some other issues with the other farrier, which I won't elaborate on as I don't wish to hurt his reputation on the internet. As to the other farrier, I have always liked him as a person, I was just skeptical of his work...but Amber has done better than ever since he started shoeing her. Having only hind shoes seemed to make her uncomfortable on the front. She just seemed unbalanced. So she is now in four shoes, aluminum on the front. I have been extremely pleased. It minimizes toe dragged off, which has greatly improved even so although she still bumps that toe a little in the stride.

At this point, she is happy and comfortable working and after all the treatments, examinations and knowledge I have gained from the professionals who have worked on her, I have chalked it up to conformation. Her pelvis has a tendency to shift to the right, which would make the shorter stride in the left hind and increased difficulty working to the left make sense. It doesn't necessarily mean there is pain. It is something I want to be cautious of to make sure that it doesn't cause pain, of course.

While all that is well and good, for the past month or more, my horse and I have fought nearly to tears every ride/lesson. I can't remember exactly when it started, but at some point she started to rush in one of the front corners of the arena, only when tracking left.

During this time I was having trouble with my equitation. I couldn't seem to sit up. My shoulders rounded and my lower back ached and I couldn't rate the speed of my post. So her rushing in that corner was even harder to control. And it escalated into me snatching, ripping and pulling and working her to frustration in that corner almost every ride. The ride would usually start out good, and then tension and my nit-picking would make everything explode into a fight.

It got to the point where she was just nervous and couldn't relax in that direction, and she anticipated me to rip her a new one every time in that corner.

It finally came to Casey getting on her 3 times in one lesson (possibly a record), to prove to me that the horse COULD do it, and it was me. Thus, the epiphany.

It made me realize that my expectations are my main problem. My perfectionist personality contributes. Before we started jumping in the spring, I had managed to get Amber into a very dressage-y headset. That turned into me expecting that every time I rode, any time I asked. I started to nit pick, and I forgot the golden rule - there has to be a release and reward.

Because I started to get hard with my hands, Casey asked me to drop my contact and float my reins. I missed the point of this entirely and assumed that I shouldn't touch my reins ever, period. I assumed that Casey liked the nose-in-the-dirt way that she went most of the time when I rode like that.

After a talk with Casey, part of my epiphany included me realizing that I can and should have appropriate contact with her. Appropriate contact is something I already know damn well how to have and I am absolutely ashamed that I let myself get to the point where I was ripping and hanging like a spoiled brat that just learned to ride.

I've been somewhat beating myself up over this because in hindsight (oh, how many times have I said hindsight in this blog?), I can't believe I was riding like I was - I know better. I KNOW better. I'm not an ignorant rider, I know what will and won't work and I can't believe I thought my crap would work.

But, fast forward. I have had two wonderful rides since this "epiphany". What Casey and I talked about I kept in mind at all times. I warmed her up on a loose rein and eventually took up contact after she had walked around a few minutes. I can tell she gets tense and worried about certain things, because she is expecting to get hell from me for it, but that will go away with time. She is relaxing so much better than I expected her to. We rode in the indoor one day and the outdoor the next. She only got a little forward in that corner. It was actually not more than a strong working trot. She was very good in her circles, which are something Casey wants us to work on, as well as bending.

I noticed she was almost lazy in her upward transitions, which was good in the situation, because she was at least not worried and ready to rush, rush, rush. We had an excellent canter, both directions.

I think I had greatly misinterpreted what Casey was trying to teach us and what things I should do working and training Amber to benefit us. I had the idea that every ride should be walk, trot, canter on the rail each direction, as per what I thought Casey wanted us to do. I cut out circles, bending, lunging and assumed that I was to keep a consistent pace and let her otherwise do whatever.

And worse, I expected. I expected the same horse every ride, and I expected every ride to be our best ride. I can't expect it, and I know better.

...And that has basically been what has happened since I last posted. Sad, right? Other than another visit from the kinesiologist...nothing major happened there. Just icing muscles and epsom salt poultices.

Well. The good news is, I'm getting a new bridle for Christmas?

Explosives and Horses. NO.

I feel crappy for failing to post regularly as of late. I stay so busy though.

First off, Amber has decided once again that hunters suits her, and is back to dragging her nose in the dirt (not literally, of course), and just generally being fantastic. Nice, consistent, rhythmic trot and canter. GORGEOUS walk to canter transitions. They are frustrating her less and less. Only thing is, I can't ride as much as I would like to because of the extreme heat. The only time I can really ride is in the morning around 8.

Especially since Amber doesn't handle heat well. She really, really doesn't do well when it's 90+. I rode at 11 the other day and she was absolutely drenched from very light work. When I have the same ride, or slightly longer, earlier in the morning when it's only 80, she's usually a little damp on her neck and a bit under her saddle pad.

All she wants to do is stay in her stall, and I can't blame her. I fed up the barn tonight and I always take out two horses at once...so I grabbed her new friend, Ellie, Victoria's new mare, (it's a CHESTNUT MARE, at that!), and decided to grab Amber on the way out. She gave me the most displeased look and turned away. I'm like, okay, fine, you can go out last.

I literally had to turn her fan off to get her to go out. The good news is she isn't stocking much anymore, if at all. Sometimes on the most humid and hot days it will be slight, and you'd only notice if you knew she had been having a problem. And some others in the barn are doing it as well. So at this point I'm not worrying about it.

Still anxious to see if she will jump again. We both loved it, and she's just a natural at it. Of course, even though we know she'll do up to 2'3" with lead changes (and I be she could go higher), I would never do more than 2' out of sheer caution and common sense.

It's funny how I was so opposed to hunters and it seems to be the one thing Amber and I can agree on. Dressage interests her for about two days and then she wants no part of it. And I'm sure I'd get a lot of protest out of the girls at the barn for saying this, but hunters is really NOT that challenging in comparison to dressage, jumpers, eventing, ect. When you get to the higher levels I'm sure it measures up to other disciplines a bit more as far as challenge is concerned, but the reason I've gone the route of hunters is because, at least with Amber, is because it's nearly effortless for both of us. I wanted to make my riding more pleasure focused, and do something that Amber also enjoyed that we didn't really have to work TOO hard at. Voila.

Now. On the note of explosions...

These kids in the house that's beside Amber's pasture were setting off some of those little Cluster Bees - you know, the little mini "fireworks" that fly up in the air and poof? That also have sharp sticks attached that you stick in the ground that go with them when they launch? Yeah those. Spooking all the horses - a couple gave me a scare with some close calls at the fence line. And then I find several that landed in the pasture. Gee, great call asshole parents.

You,

A) See that it is scaring the large prey animals next to your house.

B) Obviously see that these small explosives are landing IN the pasture, that you do NOT own.

C) Must be too stupid to consider that if a horse ran into the area these were landing, they could be injured when the sharp objects fall from quite high.

D) Must also be too stupid to realize that some horse MIGHT be nearly as stupid as you and decide to chew on these.

And today they were setting off some other loud thing(s). Pests.

The Unshoeable Wild Mare.

Well.

We had some amazing dressagey-type work going on, but them I took a video and realized how absolutely horrible and incorrect my position is. Just BAD. And how bad she likes to duck behind the vertical.

Oh man I look bad. I mean, she looks pretty good. But I don't understand how she does better when I do worse. This is how it always happens. That's just a still from the video. I'll post the video when I get time later this week...

One of the better moments:

You wouldn't know from that or the video that she is absolutely FIGHTING me and running through me like a freight train at the canter. I'm chalking it up to being out of shape and having not been in work for 3 months, but still. She was being STRONG.

She had a day off and then the next day I rode, I tried to correct my position and the ride was just crap. She wasn't going that fast at the canter, but it was choppy and unbalanced and she was totally not listening. Just wanted to fly around and ignore me.

Casey suggested we just trot around "the old way" (hunter-Amber) and let her relax. We are picking back up today with a lesson...a no stirrups and much two-pointing lesson. My muscles are already screaming.

The possibility of her jumping again has been discussed. We will have to see what the vet thinks ultimately, but Casey and I both agree she was happiest and moving the best when she was jumping. I was totally against going back to it at first, but considering that she has remained pretty much the same, except for that one point in time where I feel that Bob screwing up her hoof angles made her lame, through everything we've done...are we really dealing with lameness anymore, or are we dealing with a conformation issue and a horse that just bumps those toes on the ground because that's just her movement. She DOES hand heel first on the hind and she DOES track up. I examined this in our video. She has a ton of "lift" in the canter.

But we will see. If we keep the fences low and the work moderate, and keep vets and chiros involved, I want her to do it if she can because she wants to.

Now...you might be wondering what's up with my blog title for today?

Well, yesterday her old farriers were in Goldsboro and called Casey to see if anyone needed any of their clients had thrown a shoe. I told her if they had time and wanted to come by, the could go ahead and shoe Amber.

And upon their examination of Amber's hooves, she doesn't even have enough hoof wall to hold a shoe. Super. So we are waiting a few weeks for more hoof to grow down, and then we will see what we have.

The last blog I posted, I was talking to the other barn farrier, Roger. I like Roger, but I've decided to go back with the Stallings because Casey really thinks I should - and they are vet recommended in the area, after all. I still need to call Cat and let her know what's going on. I hate to drop her, but if we are going to come to terms and finally say that after all we have done, if Amber picked her feet up an inch higher and moved the same way, we would call her sound - so the focus for now should be to stop her from dragging the hoof back to a level dangerously close to her white line (or in it!). And who knows? Maybe she does just need support back there.

I don't think it will, but if shoes DID stop her toe dragging, I would probably throw up...and then laugh.

We're still here!

I haven't posted in forever. I've been staying really busy as of late!

Anyway.

Where we last left off, Amber was still battling a mystery fungus with balloon legs.

Turned out, she HAD gotten into fireants, and she developed cellulitis. It got pretty nasty. After several daily betadine scrubs, SMZs, Surpass cream and stall rest with wraps, she's doing well. Unfortunately because she stocked up so much with the cellulitis, she's now prone to stocking up in her pasterns in her stall.

We got the cellulitis under control in a couple of weeks. I got the OK to start working her again lightly from Dr.Wheeler. After discussing the stocking up with her she also approved that I let Amber be on 24/7, since she only stocked up in her stall.

Well, Amber disapproved. I thought she enjoyed 24/7, but the heat has become so miserable she just wants to come into her stall in the day - this, I am 100% sure of, and this is why: I was opening the gate for a little girl to put her pony away (Amber now stays with all the ponies in a dry lot during the day), and as I was closing the gate, Amber BARGED right out. And ran straight to her stall. So if that isn't a clear message of what she prefers, I don't know what is. It's so muggy and hot they sweat just standing around, and even though she has a shelter in the dry lot, it's still much cooler in her stall with the fan circulating the air.

So that is settled. Hopefully the exercise she's been getting will help curb the stocking up - Dr. Wheeler was hoping that would be the case.

After thought, observation and getting an opinion from Casey, we agree that Amber looks the same as when we started our quest for "soundness". I think improvement we were seeing was wishful thinking, point blank.

Here is what I think. I don't think the root problem has a damn thing to do with hocks or stifles. Being that I can FEEL the difference in her pelvis, I will say that was something that needed to be fixed, but again - I don't think it was the source of the problem.

The bullnosed back hooves are now more of a concern for everyone. They have been bullnosed since the first day I met her. No farrier or vet ever said a word about it, so I assumed that if it was a problem, they would have informed me and make an effort to correct it. Feeling a bit foolish at my ignorance, I now know that Amber has a negative coffin bone angle.

With this bit of information, I'm starting to think about the possibility of navicular in the hinds.

It's a bit of a long shot. It seems to me that what's probably caused her "higher up" problems is from the lack of heel-first landing on her hinds. That's not something I'm too worried about right now, but something I want to keep in mind. Being heel-sore, for whatever reason, is also a possibility.

Dr. Wheeler was suggesting wedge shoes for the hinds. I'm on the fence about it. The Stallings were suggesting eggbars...again, not so sure about it. Talked to the other farrier today, Roger, and he is pretty much in agreement with me that the toe dragging may very well just be something Amber does due to conformation, or even just having sore/poor heels.

Pretty much all the professionals working with us right now are like...well, if she drags despite doing everything possible, it's most important to minimize wear on the toe as much as possible and be adamant to watch for signs of discomfort, or when she's reaching her personal limits of physical ability.

Which brings me to the point of just throwing shoes on the back. She came to Casey a couple of months before I bought her with shoes - I bet there was a reason. I wish I could get into contact with her previous owners. While I still believe that barefoot is better, my opinion on whether or not horses "need" shoes is changing. We will see what it does for Amber. We've tried everything BUT shoes. Maybe it will provide support she needs to do better. Who knows? But whether or not it improves her dragging is semi-irrelevant. Shoes are going on regardless to minimize toe drag. With Dr. Wheelers approval, still pending (I need to call her), I want to try a plain, flat, steel shoe only on the hinds the first time. Even if she goes to the wedges, I'd feel more comfortable giving her time to adjust to the shoes before we use shoes that will pretty significantly change the angle at which her hoof sits.

I really liked my barefoot trimmer's trims. But I don't agree with what she's doing to treat the bullnose (rasping it), and while I'm more than willing to work with her on that, she doesn't offer shoes, and at this point, I simply feel that shoes are one of my last-ditch efforts. I've got that list in my head - try the shoes, if need be, go to wedges. At least it will curb the dragging (which, due to her lack of activity, is nearly gone all together now - but she needs to start working again and building muscle). Another one of my last ditch efforts is an animal communicator. Do I dare mention this plan to the farriers, vets or Casey? No. I feel that any "leads" I get would be stuck down pretty quick. It's pretty far fetched. But right now, I feel my money is best saved for emergency. After the communicator, my very last attempt to figure this out would be X-rays and nerve blocking. This is the last attempt because the cost will be hefty and it will be some time before I can afford it. The communicator cost will be miniscule in comparison, so spending money on that while I save will probably not make a huge impact, and who knows - it could change the whole ballgame.

So that's our plan for now. She's just as awesome as she ever was under saddle. Her manners on the lunge are a lot better. She understands what I'm asking for better. Walk to canter still frustrates her a bit but she does it nicely. Will still soften and collect and round her back like a champ. After she warms up, she will also drag her nose in the dirt like the little hunter I try to make her be occasionally. She drags like nobody's business at the walk and trot, but she doesn't drag at all at the canter.

I feel pretty confident about Roger's suggestion of flat steel shoes. Let's face it - I'm willing to pay for alum. wedges - he has an opportunity to make more money that way. Suggesting the cheaper option because he thinks it will be better is a good sign. I hope we are able to stick with him - I'm stick of trying to find the perfect match for her feet, and it does her NO good to have to get used to a different trim every time she gets done.

Little update!

Swelling was the same today. In all night was no bueno and I knew it but it would have been worse for her to be sliding in mud fussing with the others I figured.

Tonight she is out by herself in the front arena. I think perhaps it's the rain rot on her legs...I had NO idea but found out via google that that can happen. Being that I discovered the OTHER hind swollen today...and upon a closer look...I think it IS rain rot.

It's been very wet and humid this year. It's really unusual, usually it's very dry this time of year.

So there's that...I'm going to give it a couple of days treating the rain rot and see what happens. She trotted out fine today. I won't even have the cash to have the vet out until Friday in any case, thanks to still recouping from the $565 I popped for the trip to Apex.

Unrelated, I think I'm going to have her go back out in the back pasture next month. I would have done it this month, but being that board is due soon, I don't want to spring it on Casey. But not only would it help me save some money for potential future complications, but I think the 24/7 would do her good. I'll just have to keep an eye on her weight...I wonder if there are any supplements that help easy keepers not be SO easy!

She'll still get her supps in the AM, I already talked to Madison, the morning feeder, and she said she'd be willing to bring Amber in for feeding in the morning. Of course, I'll be paying her for the trouble.